Chelsea vs Arsenal: Chelsea Open Up 12-point lead After Arsenal 3-1
Feb 4, 2017 at 9:59 PM
On Saturday afternoon, EPL leaders Chelsea beat Arsenal by 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea was 1-0 ahead at the end of the first half through Pedro’s goal on 13 minutes.
In the second half, Hazard (53’) scored a superb goal while Cesc Fabregas (85’) pounced upon Cech’s blunder and slotted in an open goal. Before the end of the match, Giroud (90’+1’) opened Arsenal’s account through a header.
Chelsea had a scary moment in the very beginning of the match (2’) as the hosts’ goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois mistakenly made a pass to Ozil who later produce a ball for Iwobi. But Iwobi’s shot was deflected outside the box at the end.
Chelsea opened the scoreline on 13 minutes. Pedro conjured up a good cross for Costa who hit the top of the bar with his header. Marcos Alonso slotted in a rebound with another header which beat Cech and went into the net.
There was a clash between Alonso and Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin during Alonso’s header which terribly hurt Bellerin. It forced Bellerin to go off the field who was replaced by Gabriel Paulista.
5 minutes later, Francis Coquelin (Arsenal) had a chance but his shot went just over the bar.
In the very next minute, Costa was looking dangerous in the Arsenal box but in the end, his shot hit the side-net.
In the first half, Arsenal had the best chance to equal the scoreline on 38 minutes. Oxlade-Chamberlain’s cross found substitute Gabriel unmarked whose header went straight to the Chelsea goalkeeper as Courtois cleared the ball in the end.
Just before the end of the first half, Ozil had a chance to equalise the scoreline but his effort was easily saved by Courtois.
In the second half, Hazard extended the hosts’ lead to 2-0 on 53 minutes with an incredible solo goal. Collecting the ball at the centre circle, Hazard made a superb solo run towards the goal beating as many as four Arsenal players and then took a shot from 6-yards off goal which successfully entered into the back of the net.
Arsenal had two back-to-back chances on 78 minutes. First Sanchez’s cross found substitute Danny Welbeck, who glanced a header but Courtois, at full stretch, cleared the ball, as a result, the visitors had to be satisfied with just a corner.
From that corner, Mustafi beat his marker to a header but that attempt was not on target.
Chelsea added another goal from Cech’s blunder on 85 minutes. Cech mistakenly provided a pass to substitute Cesc Fabregas who volleyed into an open goal as Chelsea scoreline read 3-0 on the scoreboard.
Arsenal got a consolation goal in last moments of the match. Monreal’s (90’+1’) cross found substitute Oliver Giroud who headed past hosts’ goalie to score the goal.
With this victory, league leaders Chelsea (59 points) have opened up a 12-point lead from currently 3rd placed Arsenal (47 points).